AfriForum welcomes the Press Ombudsman’s ruling that the article titled “Could it be time to deny white men the franchise?”, which was published last week on The Huffington Post South Africa, is discriminatory and denigratory. This follows after AfriForum laid a complaint against The Huffington Post South Africa and the editor Verashni Pillay for the publication and defending of this article.
The article amongst others states that white men should lose their voting right for 20 to 30 years.
According to the ruling, Pillay’s defending of the publishing of the article is also hate speech. The Press Ombudsman stated in the ruling that Pillay has the fullest right to support the views of the article, but then she must know that it is not possible within the confines of the press code.
“AfriForum welcomes the Press Ombudsman’s ruling, but we are concerned that the author of the original article published in The Huffington Post South Africa has been proven right; namely that any nonsense will be slurped up and become part of the public debate, as long as the right group (white men) are targeted,” says Ernst Roets, Deputy CEO of AfriForum.
The Press Ombudsman also ruled that The Huffington Post South Africa must unreservedly apologise to the general public for publishing the article.